Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Alternative cancer therapies and the promise of false hope

Physician

July 22, 2019

How do you respond when patients with a good prognosis want to delay chemotherapy to try an anticancer diet for a few months or visit an unregulated clinic for unproven therapies? I’m asking because of an alarming finding of ASCO’s 2018 National Cancer Opinion Survey: “Nearly 4 in 10 Americans believe cancer can be cured solely through alternative therapies …” Clearly, we have a problem in today’s discussion about cancer treatments. …

What cancer taught this physician about hope

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Physician

December 13, 2018

As an internist, I strived to give patients hope by prescribing therapies that increased their chance — their hope — of the best outcome and by encouraging them with hopeful words. My own hope was to care for patients until I was old.

Just weeks after celebrating my 36th birthday, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Throughout the ups-and-downs of my chemotherapy, I felt the kind of hope I’d wanted my …

It takes time to deliver efficient care

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Physician

September 6, 2011

Obesity is linked to many serious medical conditions. Yet many physicians refrain from talking about “the elephant in the room” for fear of offending patients.

The Archives of Internal Medicine published a study with the conclusion: “Patient reports of being told by a physician that they were overweight were associated with more realistic perceptions of the patients’ own weight, desire to lose weight, and recent attempts to lose weight.”

When in …

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It takes time to deliver efficient care

Pain needs to be better treated in cancer survivors

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Conditions

June 14, 2011

After people have a heart attack, stroke or joint replacement, rehab is a routine part of their recovery plan. Cancer survivors, too, can have significant musculoskeletal issues during and after the acute illness. Yet cancer rehab programs are few and far between. Why is that?

For no good reason, rehab has not yet made it to the culture of survivorship. It’s time to do something about this.

Cure Magazine published an important article by physician-survivor Julie Silver in the online …

How much empathy is too much?

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Patient

March 30, 2011

If you’re sick, you need people to empathize with you, right? Maybe not.

Empathy is one of those words with a wide variety of definitions, especially in academic settings.

From Wikipedia: “Empathy … cover[s] a broad spectrum, ranging from feeling a concern for other people that creates a desire to help them, experiencing emotions that match another person’s emotions, knowing what the other person is …

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How much empathy is too much?

Depersonalization of the patient and the loss of compassion

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Physician

January 25, 2011

A common complaint about modern medicine is the depersonalization of the patient and the loss of compassion.

So let’s take a look at compassion.

Compassion is derived from the Latin “cum” (together with) and “patior” (suffer). From the perspective of clinicians, compassion is defined by two concurrent emotions: (1) a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by medical misfortune accompanied by (2) a strong desire to relieve that …

Ethics of placebo in cancer treatment clinical trials

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Conditions

November 27, 2010

The New York Times recently ran an article tackling a complex ethical dilemma in cancer care: the withholding of treatment in clinical trials. Because I was treated in 3 clinical trials in the 1990s, the topic is close to my heart.

Scientists have advanced the treatment of disease using the scientific method. By that, I mean they have tested a theory using rigorous methods that give a reliable and reproducible answer. This …

How open medical charts help Healthy Survivorship

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Patient

October 8, 2010

[Editor’s note: Please visit part 1 of Dr. Harpham’s take on OpenNotes.]

“Our” Chart

Does the opportunity for patients to read their medical charts help or hurt patients’ ability to become Healthy Survivors?

Open notes can facilitate Healthy Survivorship for some patients.

Unfortunately, other patients may learn something about their condition that makes it more difficult to get good care or live as fully as possible. Or they may experience feelings that threaten the physician-patient bond. …

Why OpenNotes and access to the medical chart is important

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Patient

August 24, 2010

Have you ever read what your physicians and nurses have written in your medical chart? If not, would you want to?

The OpenNotes project is a recently launched observational research study that involves 100 primary care doctors and about 25,000 patients. Lead author Dr. Tom Delbacoa, a primary care physician at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, poses the research question succinctly: “After a year, will the patients and doctors still want to continue sharing notes?”

In the study, …

How patients can bring information and new ideas to their doctors

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Patient

February 7, 2010

A patient learns about a treatment for his condition. So he goes to his physician to suggest the treatment as an option. Is there anything wrong with that?

It depends on how his “suggestion” is presented.

In today’s age of patient advocacy and direct-to-patient marketing of pharmaceuticals, a new phenomenon is flourishing in doctors’ offices: patients asking for specific diagnostic tests or therapies.

I think it’s terrific if you bring information and ideas …

What doctors can learn from patients in the health care reform debate

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Policy

September 30, 2009

Two things are missing from the bustling conversations on health care reform jamming the Internet highway. First, where among the finger-pointing anecdotes and critical analyses of our “broken” American medical system are the stories and discussions of all that is right? Second, where is our sense of hope?

I’ve experienced American health care from an unusual, yet useful, vantage: that of a physician with chronically recurring cancer. From both sides of …

The value of a cancer diagnosis second opinion

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Conditions

September 8, 2009

Here are words any patient awaiting cancer surgery would be thrilled to hear: “We are canceling your upcoming operation! It turns out that the suspicious changes we saw on your recent biopsy are completely benign.”

This happy turn of events happened in my life recently, thanks to a second opinion from a type of physician few patients realize plays a critical role in their care: the pathologist.

Pathologists are medical doctors who …

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

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